Digital Billboards

A judge has invalidated permits for another 19 digital billboards in Los Angeles, adding them to dozens that were struck down last week, a lawyer with City Atty. Carmen Trutanich said. The ruling, issued Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Terry Green, brings the total number of electronic sign permits that have been revoked to 99, said special assistant city attorney Jane Usher. Of the 99 signs, not all had completed the conversion to digital formats, she said. Green allowed just two electronic signs to keep operating, both in the San Fernando Valley -- one on Ventura Boulevard in Encino and the other on Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Woodland Hills.

In a city derided for its lack of historic consciousness, murals tell the narrative of Los Angeles. Political movements, surfers' idylls, Hollywood stars - all have been captured on the sides of buildings, freeways and fences. Whether they are great art - some are, some are not - is almost beside the point. They are part of the cultural history of the city and its people. But since 2003, there has been an absolute prohibition on the creation of any murals on private property. The ban went into effect as part of the city's long-running billboard wars - it was an effort to prevent commercial sign companies from passing off advertisements as murals.

Los Angeles would outlaw new digital billboards and slash the size of all new commercial signs under a proposed ordinance intended to end proliferation of outdoor advertising that critics say have overwhelmed neighborhoods and L.A.'s busy roadways. Overall, the space allowed for new signage would shrink to one-quarter of what is currently permitted.

Two newly elected members of the Los Angeles City Council are veteran Sacramento lawmakers whose campaigns got large boosts from special interest contributions. Former state Assemblyman Gil Cedillo and state Sen. Curren Price (D-Los Angeles) won election Tuesday, beating candidates with more local experience because of their jobs as City Council aides. Cedillo and Price could be joined on the council by a third statehouse veteran if former Assemblywoman Cindy Montañez wins a runoff election July 23 against school board member Nury Martinez.

Electronic billboards have been sprouting up all over California, flashing digital ads for SUVs and soft drinks and, some say, creating a dangerous distraction for drivers. Alarmed at the proliferation of the signs, a group of state lawmakers from Los Angeles on Friday proposed a two-year moratorium on electronic billboards in the state. The proposal comes a month after L.A.

An outdoor advertising company fighting to preserve dozens of digital billboards across Los Angeles warned this week that it would seek "substantially" more than $100 million from City Hall if it is ordered to remove any electronic signs targeted in a recent court ruling. In an 11-page letter sent Friday, Clear Channel Outdoor told Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Atty. Carmen Trutanich and Council President Herb Wesson that its digital signs are "valuable assets that the city cannot attempt to take away without paying just compensation.

The view from Betty Kermanian's Westwood-area backyard changes every few seconds. Through the leafy limbs of a tree in front of her house, the stars of "Sherlock Holmes" -- Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law -- peer down from a luminescent Clear Channel digital billboard that towers over nearby Santa Monica Boulevard. Seconds later, Kiefer Sutherland flashes his gun in an ad for "24." Also in the mix are four iterations of midriff-baring vixens selling an H&M line of lacy black bras and silk kimonos.

The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to draft new regulations for digital billboards, despite protests from critics who accused lawmakers of trying to circumvent a pending court decision that could eliminate dozens of those signs. On an 11-3 vote, council members instructed the city's planning and policy advisors to come back within 30 days with a proposed ordinance that would give the city a share of digital billboard revenue and avert "potential legal disputes" surrounding the brightly lit signs.

Responding to anger over a new digital billboard in his district, Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti called Wednesday for new rules limiting outdoor signs from displaying electronic messages in residential neighborhoods. Garcetti proposed the new rules after the advertising company Clear Channel Outdoor last month switched a billboard in the 1700 block of Silver Lake Boulevard to digital images, infuriating his constituents.

A judge on Friday gave two outdoor advertising companies three days to pull the plug on 77 digital billboards across Los Angeles, attorneys for the city said. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Terry Green demanded that dozens of signs operated by Clear Channel Outdoor and CBS Outdoor go dark by 5 p.m. on Monday, representatives of both sides said. The signs had been allowed under a much-criticized deal between the two companies and the City Council. The ruling was hailed by anti-billboard activists, who have argued for years that the digital displays constitute blight and frequently shine into neighbors' homes.

Advertising company Lamar sued the city of Los Angeles two months ago, demanding the right to install new digital billboards in such neighborhoods as Sherman Oaks, Silver Lake, Glassell Park and the Fairfax district. Lamar's involvement in city politics did not stop there. Since it filed that lawsuit, the company has financed scores of billboards for candidates in the May 21 election - 100 for mayoral hopeful Wendy Greuel, 100 for city controller candidate Dennis Zine and 20 apiece for City Council candidates Curren Price, Nury Martinez and Gil Cedillo.

The union that represents Department of Water and Power employees has pumped another $300,000 into the effort to elect Wendy Greuel, cementing its status as the largest single contributor in the Los Angeles mayor's race, according to campaign finance reports obtained Saturday. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18 dropped $200,000 into the campaign group Working Californians for Greuel, whose treasurer is Brian D'Arcy, the DWP union's top executive. The IBEW's Washington, D.C.-based political action committee also put $100,000 into the pro-Greuel group, according to filings sent to the city's Ethics Commission.

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel launched the first television attack ad of the runoff campaign Friday - accusing rival Eric Garcetti of hiding an investment in a company that established unpopular digital billboards and concealing a lease that gave his family drilling rights associated with an oil well at Beverly Hills High School. The ad comes a little more than four weeks before the May 21 election and with City Controller Greuel apparently trying to close a lead that City Councilman Garcetti enjoyed as of the first round of voting March 5. The 30-second spot shows images of digital billboards, which have annoyed many neighbors with their bright nighttime displays.

A judge has invalidated permits for another 19 digital billboards in Los Angeles, adding them to dozens that were struck down last week, a lawyer with City Atty. Carmen Trutanich said. The ruling, issued Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Terry Green, brings the total number of electronic sign permits that have been revoked to 99, said special assistant city attorney Jane Usher. Of the 99 signs, not all had completed the conversion to digital formats, she said. Green allowed just two electronic signs to keep operating, both in the San Fernando Valley -- one on Ventura Boulevard in Encino and the other on Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Woodland Hills.

SACRAMENTO - An influential state senator has a plan to allow electronic billboard ads that are currently banned by state law - including pitches for beer and gambling - next to a proposed NFL stadium in Los Angeles. The proposal, approved by a legislative committee, has outraged activists who oppose the proliferation of electronic billboards. They say lawmakers intend the measure as special treatment for Philip Anschutz, the Denver billionaire who wants to build the stadium in downtown Los Angeles.

A judge on Friday gave two outdoor advertising companies three days to pull the plug on 77 digital billboards across Los Angeles, attorneys for the city said. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Terry Green demanded that dozens of signs operated by Clear Channel Outdoor and CBS Outdoor go dark by 5 p.m. on Monday, representatives of both sides said. The signs had been allowed under a much-criticized deal between the two companies and the City Council. The ruling was hailed by anti-billboard activists, who have argued for years that the digital displays constitute blight and frequently shine into neighbors' homes.

A three-judge panel Monday ordered the removal of 100 digital billboards installed across Los Angeles under a 2006 legal settlement - the latest turn in a decade-long saga surrounding outdoor signs. The panel convened by the state's 2nd District Court of Appeal said the City Council never should have allowed advertising companies CBS Outdoor and Clear Channel Outdoor to convert dozens of billboards to electronic formats when existing laws prohibited such changes. "We do not see how the language could be plainer," the ruling states.

Digital billboard opponents won a victory Wednesday when an area planning commission ruled that Los Angeles city officials erred when they issued permits allowing three traditional signs to be converted to an electronic format. Homeowner groups and the Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight joined forces more than a year ago to challenge two signs on Westwood Boulevard and a third on West Santa Monica Boulevard. They argued that the modifications to the Westwood Boulevard signs -- a result of a legal settlement between the city and CBS Outdoor and Clear Channel Outdoor -- violated local zoning plans protecting neighborhood character in one instance and a pedestrian district in another.

A judge on Friday gave two outdoor advertising companies three days to pull the plug on 77 digital billboards across Los Angeles, attorneys for the city said. Superior Court Judge Terry Green demanded that dozens of signs operated by Clear Channel Outdoor and CBS Outdoor go dark by 5 p.m. on Monday, representatives of both sides said. The signs had been allowed under a much-criticized deal between the two companies and the City Council. The ruling was hailed by anti-billboard activists, who had argued for years that the digital displays constitute blight and frequently shine in neighbor's homes.

As the mayoral candidates crossed the two-month mark until the runoff election, Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti are struggling with a bit of a paradox -- the two long-time, pro-labor Democrats are jockeying over which of them is more likely to stand up to city-employee union demands. Both candidates have labor backing, but the most influential and deep-pocketed unions have thrown their support behind Greuel. That has resulted in a political dynamic few expected -- Greuel has emerged as the de facto labor candidate while Garcetti has been painted as a union nemesis.